Frederick Corfield
Sir Frederick Vernon Corfield
Early life
Corfield was the son of Brigadier Frederick Alleyne Corfield of the British Indian Army and Mary Graham Vernon, daughter of Thomas Bowater Vernon of Hanbury, Walllington (then in Surrey).[1] His father also owned the Chatwall estate at Cardington, Shropshire, which Frederick inherited on his father's death in 1939.[2]
He was educated firstly at Brockhurst Preparatory School
After his return to England he was called to the bar at Middle Temple in 1946 and spent a year in the army's Judge Advocate General's branch within England.[4] This did not suit him. He spent the next decade mainly as a farmer; first on the family farm at Chatwall in Shropshire, whose main estate he sold in 1951 (keeping some land whose rents he donated to Cardington church, whose advowson he also retained) then on a 300-acre (1.2 km2) farm at Middle Lypiatt near Stroud in Gloucestershire.[5]
Political career
In 1955 he became MP for South Gloucestershire. Shortly after becoming an MP he launched a private member's bill to improve compensation for compulsory land purchases. He received a second reading for his bill in February 1958, against government advice, and its general principles were incorporated in the Town and Country Planning Act of 1959.
He became secretary of the Conservative MPs' agriculture committee (1956–62), and chairman of its small farms subcommittee (1957–58). He also became parliamentary private secretary to Airey Neave.[citation needed] Under Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home he held the position of Joint Parliamentary Secretary of Housing and Local Government (1962–4). He became an opposition spokesman on land and natural resources 1964–65 and subsequently an executive member of the 1922 Committee.
In 1970 Corfield was briefly
He returned to the backbenches in 1972 and did not contest his Gloucestershire seat in the
Later career
After this retirement from the Commons, Corfield, who had become a member of the
Publications
Corfield was author of the following legal works:
- Corfield on Compensation (1959)
- A Guide to the Community Land Act, 1976 (1976)
- Compulsory Acquisitional Compensation (with R.J.A. Chinworth) (1978)[7]
Personal life
On 10 August 1945 he married Elizabeth Mary Ruth Taylor, younger daughter of Edmund Coston Taylor of
He died in August 2005, aged 90.
References
- ^ Burke's Landed Gentry 1952, article Corfield of Chatwall, p.531.
- ^ ISBN 0-646-14333-6.
- ^ Guardian newspaper obituary.
- ^ a b The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day, p.114.
- ^ The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day, p.115.
- ^ a b The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day, p.117.
- ^ a b Who's Who 2000, published A. & C. Black, p.443.
- ^ Burke's Landed Gentry 1952, article Corfield of Chatwall, p.529.
- ^ The Corfields: A history of the Corfields from 1180 to the present day, p.113.
External links
- The Papers of Sir Frederick Corfield held at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge